NEA Monthly News Bulletin - June 2011

New at the NEA

International Ministerial Meeting on Nuclear Safety following the Fukushima Accident

7 June 2011 - Co-organised by the French Presidency of the G8 and the NEA, and with 33 countries in attendance, this meeting enabled important discussions on how to reinforce international co-operation and international legal frameworks on nuclear safety in follow-up to the Fukushima accident. Press release

Forum on the Fukushima Accident: Insights and Approaches

8 June 2011 - The nuclear regulatory authorities of the G8, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) member countries and associated countries including Brazil, India, Romania, South Africa and Ukraine, met in Paris to discuss insights gained in relation to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident and to decide on appropriate follow-up actions at the international level.Press release | Press conference video

Nuclear safety and regulation

First meeting of the Senior-level Task Group on Fukushima

On 4-6 May 2011, the new NEA Senior-level Task Group on the Implications of the Fukushima Accident met to exchange information on national and regional actions taken to date and to discuss future activities. The group's objective is to recommend areas for short-term and long-term nuclear safety activities so that countries can manage resources more effectively and efficiently. The group will report to the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) and the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) on 6 and 9 June 2011 respectively.

Testing VVER fuel behaviour

On 11 May 2011, the NEA Halden Reactor Project (HRP) held a workshop on Russian-designed pressurised water reactor (VVER) fuel behaviour. The workshop covered VVER fuel behaviour and modelling during steady state, power ramping and accident conditions (LOCA). Workshop participants reviewed results from experiments including two LOCAs with VVER fuel. Participants from HRP member countries with VVER fuel in use presented results of analytical activities linked to the Halden tests. The workshop concluded with recommendations and proposals for further testing of VVER fuel in the Halden reactor.

Workshop on Defence in Depth of Electrical Systems and Grid Interaction (DIDELSYS)

On 10-11 May 2011, the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) held a workshop on Defence in depth of electrical systems and grid interaction (DIDELSYS) to identify elements in the assessment of the adequacy of design and operational controls to ensure protection against voltage/frequency transients from external/internal electrical systems. Participants evaluated the results of DIDELSYS activities and how findings and recommendations have been factored into design and operating practices in NEA member countries.

Radiological protection

The WPNEM shifts focus to recovery at Fukushima

The Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) met on 3-4 May with an agenda focused primarily on the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Participants discussed early response actions on “soft countermeasures” taken by other countries as well as national decisions and recommendations made regarding countries’ foreign nationals in Japan, international travel, and food and commodity exports. The WPNEM has developed a programme of activities to address these issues and will closely examine the urgent and early transition to recovery phases of the accident. The Working Party also discussed the preliminary results of and future plans for the fourth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX).

The annual meeting of the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) took place on 17-19 May. During this year’s topical session on the Fukushima Daiichi accident, participants addressed national and international responses to the evolving situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The CRPPH plans to assist Japan in the post-Fukushima recovery through its work on stakeholder involvement in radiological protection decision-making, and to identify and share recovery-related stakeholder involvement experience among all NEA member countries.

Japan could benefit from NEA experience in occupational exposure

Radiation exposure during the clean-up efforts was discussed at length during the Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) and the ISOE Working Group on Data Analysis (WGDA) meetings held on 24-25 May. These groups discussed how the collective experience of the ISOE membership could best assist Japanese recovery efforts. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) experts could face similar circumstances to those experienced in the years following the Three Mile Island accident. The groups agreed that work at the Fukushima site could benefit from experience in planning and implementing work at nuclear power plants in high-radiation areas. The ISOE and the WGDA will therefore develop a resource of experience in working in high-radiation areas.

Nuclear development

Outcomes from the System Effects of Nuclear Power Workshop

The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Energy Economics (WPNE) workshop on 24 May 2011 brought together participants from NEA member countries, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission to discuss the system effects of nuclear power and its contribution to a low-carbon electricity future. The workshop focused on the issues that nuclear power plants pose for electricity systems and the contribution of nuclear power in dealing with effects generated by other technologies. Three sessions covered topics such as the ability of nuclear power plants to modulate their load, grid planning for integrated electricity systems and the modelisation of integrated electricity systems with large amounts of intermittent renewables. Participants exchanged information and views on the important issue of power system effects and expressed the hope that the forthcoming NEA study on this issue would include concrete proposals for policy makers to take account of system effects and to enhance the role of nuclear energy in electricity systems with large amounts of intermittent renewables.

Nuclear science

Progress reviewed at annual WPEC meeting

The NEA hosted the annual meeting of the Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC) on 12-13 May. Participants reviewed the status of major evaluated nuclear data libraries, worldwide progress in nuclear data measurement and the status of WPEC subgroups. Three subgroups (Sg) had completed their work: Prompt photon production from fission products (Sg27), Processing of covariance data in the resonance region (Sg28), U-235 capture cross-section in the keV to MeV energy region (Sg29). Final reports will be published by the end of 2011. In addition to the long-term effort to maintain the High Priority Request List (HPRL) for nuclear data, five subgroups will address the following issues: Meeting nuclear data needs for advanced reactor systems (Sg31), Methods and issues for the combined use of integral experiments and covariance data (Sg33), Co-ordinated evaluation of Pu-239 in the resonance region (Sg34), Scattering angular distribution in the fast energy range (Sg35) and Reporting and usage of experimental data for evaluation in the resolved resonance region (Sg36).

2011 ICSBEP handbook discussed at annual meeting

The annual International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) meeting was held on 2-5 May. Representatives from 11 of the 20 participating countries attended, including Brazil, Canada, China, France, India, Japan, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Eighteen evaluations and two revisions of a previously published evaluation were reviewed and discussed. Seventeen evaluations were approved for publication, subject to satisfactory resolution of all assigned actions. One evaluation was deferred until next year. If all the approved evaluations are completed in time for publication, the 2011 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments will contain 4551 critical or subcritical configurations, 24 criticality-alarm/shielding configurations, and 200 configurations categorised as fundamental-physics measurements that are relevant to criticality-safety applications.

Data Bank

JEFF 3.2.T1 test file discussed at spring meeting

The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion File (JEFF) project held its annual meeting on 9-11 May. Over 60 participants noted progress of recent data evaluation work, reviewed feedback from users of the JEFF library and discussed the next major update of the library: JEFF-3.2. A JEFF 3.2.T1 test file has been assembled and is now available to JEFF participants as a preparatory step towards the official release of JEFF-3.2, which is expected by mid-2013. This first JEFF-3.2 test file includes 161 updated nuclide evaluations in the form of modifications, replacements and new additions.